Emphasis scriptures answer the following question: What scripture blocks have a high concentration of a given word?

To answer this question a process was developed to analyze the scriptures and return scripture blocks with an emphasis or focus on a given word.

In a way, this process is similar to a process used in the mining industry. When a location is being explored for natural resources, the ground is probed by passing sound waves into the ground and analyzing the sound reflected back. This process (reflection seismology) can be used to
map the formations below, discover locations where desired minerals are likely to be found, estimate the size of any mineral deposits, and identify the best places to begin digging.

The emphasis scripture process probes the scriptures looking for pockets of a given word to find a good location to dig for themes, patterns, and principles related to that word.

STEP 1 - "PROBING" THE TEXT

The standard works (From Genesis to The Articles of Faith) were scanned counting the number of occurances of each word in all 1-verse blocks (Gen. 1:1, Gen. 1:2, Gen. 1:3, etc.). Then, the scan was repeated counting the number of occurances of each word in all 2-verse blocks (Gen. 1:1-2, Gen. 1:2-3, Gen. 1:3-4, etc.), then 3-verse blocks, and so forth.

In this way, all possible (contiguous) scripture blocks of any given length were mapped to find pockets of any given word.

This scan looks for all:

a) single verse blocks in which a word occurs more than once.
b) multi-verse blocks in which a word occurs an average of one or more times per verse (e.g. 3 or more occurances in a 3-verse block, 4 or more occurances in a 4-verse block).

As an example, let's focus on a single word and see how the process works. If we search for the word "plan" in Alma Chapter 12 starting in verse 21 we find the following results for each block length:

1-verseblock

2-verseblock

3-verseblock

4-verseblock

5-verseblock

verse

count

verses

count

verses

count

verses

count

verses

count

21

0

21-22

0

21-23

0

21-24

0

21-25

2

22

0

22-23

0

22-24

0

22-25

2

22-26

3

23

0

23-24

0

23-25

2

23-26

3

23-27

3

24

0

24-25

2

24-26

3

24-27

3

24-28

3

25

2

25-26

3

25-27

3

25-28

3

25-29

3

26

1

26-27

1

26-28

1

26-29

1

26-30

2

27

0

27-28

0

27-29

0

27-30

1

27-31

1

28

0

28-29

0

28-30

1

28-31

1

28-32

3

29

0

29-30

1

29-31

1

29-32

3

29-33

4

30

1

30-31

1

30-32

3

30-33

4

30-34

4

31

0

31-32

2

31-33

3

31-34

3

31-35

3

32

2

32-33

3

32-34

3

32-35

3

32-36

3

33

1

33-34

1

33-35

1

33-36

1

33-37

1

34

0

34-35

0

34-36

0

34-37

0

34-13:1

0

The shaded blocks satisfy either a or b in the criteria above.

STEP 2 - FINDING THE "BEST" BLOCK

Since many of the returned scripture blocks for a given word overlap, the data is filtered to return the block with the largest number of occurrences having the smallest number of verses. All other blocks that overlap the selected block are filtered out. Blocks that do not overlap are evaluated separately and are included as a separate item in the output.

If we apply this step to the example in Alma 12, we see that there are 2 pockets that don't overlap. The blocks with the highest number of occurrences of the word "plan" having the smallest number of verses are Alma 12:25-26 (3 occurances in 2 verses) and Alma 12:30-33 (4 occurances in 4 verses). The chart below shows the selected blocks and the overlapping blocks that are filtered out.

1-verseblock

2-verseblock

3-verseblock

4-verseblock

5-verseblock

verse

count

verses

count

verses

count

verses

count

verses

count

21

0

21-22

0

21-23

0

21-24

0

21-25

2

22

0

22-23

0

22-24

0

22-25

2

22-26

3

23

0

23-24

0

23-25

2

23-26

3

23-27

3

24

0

24-25

2

24-26

3

24-27

3

24-28

3

25

2

25-26

3

25-27

3

25-28

3

25-29

3

26

1

26-27

1

26-28

1

26-29

1

26-30

2

27

0

27-28

0

27-29

0

27-30

1

27-31

1

28

0

28-29

0

28-30

1

28-31

1

28-32

3

29

0

29-30

1

29-31

1

29-32

3

29-33

4

30

1

30-31

1

30-32

3

30-33

4

30-34

4

31

0

31-32

2

31-33

3

31-34

3

31-35

3

32

2

32-33

3

32-34

3

32-35

3

32-36

3

33

1

33-34

1

33-35

1

33-36

1

33-37

1

34

0

34-35

0

34-36

0

34-37

0

34-13:1

0

Using this process throughout the entire standard works for the word "plan", reveals 4 scripture blocks (totaling 12 verses) that meet the emphasis scripture criteria. These 4 scripture blocks contain the word a total of 14 times. So, in a matter of minutes we can read these 4 blocks and be exposed to 14 of the 46 occurances (over 30%) of the word "plan" in the scriptures. Next, we can search the chapters in which these emphasis scriptures are found to look for patterns and connections related to the idea. In this case, the two chapters that contain emphasis scripture are Alma Chapters 12 and 42. Alma 42 adds 4 more occurances of the word plan which increases our exposure to 18 out of 46 (almost 40%). Clearly these chapters are trying to teach us something about the plan.